It’s Unclearly Defined, but Telecommuting Is Fast on the Rise

WE all know what telecommuting is and who does it. It’s working from home (or maybe a Starbucks), and it’s usually done by someone in their 20s, or a mother with small children.

Well, no. Actually, the typical telecommuter is a 49-year-old college graduate — man or woman — who earns about $58,000 a year and belongs to a company with more than 100 employees, according to numbers culled from the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey.

And the phenomenon appears to be growing. The annual survey last year by the Society for Human Resource Management found a greater increase in the number of companies planning to offer telecommuting in 2014 than those offering just about any other new benefit.

This winter might help push the trend even faster. Federal employees in Washington who worked from home during four official snow days saved the government an estimated $32 million, according to Kate Lister, president of Global Workplace Analytics, and its research arm Telework Research Network.

And as this movement grows, being clear about what we mean by telecommuting is important. It’s the only way companies will know “how to build workplaces and design work practices and decide what technology is needed for support,” Ms. Lister said.

What we do know is that telecommuting isn’t limited to one sector of the population. Men, women, parents, people without children, young and old all participate.

We also know that those who work at home tend to put in longer hours and are often more productive. It works best when a company has developed a plan, including the best technology to use. But we also know it can hurt an employee’s promotion chances and that some combination of working at home and in the office seems ideal.

The first thing to tackle, however, is the slippery meaning of the word “telecommuter.” The most complete definition is someone employed full time at a private, nonprofit or government organization, who works at least half the time at home.

By one estimate, telecommuting has risen 79 percent between 2005 and 2012 and now makes up 2.6 percent of the American work force, or 3.2 million workers, according to statistics from the American Community Survey. That includes full-time employees who work from home for someone other than themselves at least half the time, Ms. Lister said.

But that definition has at times been expanded to include the self-employed; those whose work has to be done outside an office, such as taxi drivers, plumbers, truckers and construction workers; companies where everyone works remotely, so there is no brick-and-mortar office; and those who work at home one day or less a week.

If all of those workers are included, the number of Americans who work remotely can reach as high as 30 percent.

“No one would disagree that the U.S. work force is increasingly mobile,” said the Telework Research Network in a 2011 paper on the state of telecommuting. “But, beyond that broad statement, we know little about the rate of increase in mobility — how often people are out of the office, where they are, and what they’re doing. For that matter, there’s no agreed-upon method of defining who they are.”

Jennifer Glass, a professor of sociology at the University of Texas, Austin, who has studied teleworking for two decades, said her research shows that much of what managers and professionals call telecommuting occurs after a 40-hour week spent in the office. These people check email, return calls and write reports from home, but in the evenings and weekends.

“Let’s be honest about what we’re talking about,” she said.

So what is agreed upon? For one, that it is not predominantly women who telecommute. Most research says it is at least equal between men and women, while Cali Williams Yost, chief executive of Flex & Strategy, said a telephone survey released last month by her company found that more men than women said they worked remotely.

Kipp Jarecke-Cheng fits right into the typical teleworker profile. He is 44, and for the last year has been director of global public relations and communications for Nurun, a design and technology consulting company based in Montreal. At his old job, he commuted about 45 minutes to Manhattan from his home in Maplewood, N.J., but he chose to telecommute to be closer to his family.

It took some time to get used to working at home, he said. Like many teleworkers, he found that communicating with his colleagues and subordinates was more difficult, at least initially.

“Probably one of the biggest transitions was that in a physical office, you can stroll by and ask questions,” Mr. Jarecke-Cheng said. “Here I have to accumulate a list of questions.”

But it helped tremendously, he said, that after he was hired, Nurun sent him to its national and international offices to meet people face-to-face.

“I’m not just a name on an email,” he said.

David Haddad of New York City began working remotely as chief executive of a nonprofit start-up in 2011. His company is made up solely of remote workers, with no centralized location.

Mr. Haddad likes the flexibility, but there are downsides.

“It’s difficult to keep tabs of what everyone is doing, as well as keep myself motivated to constantly report on my goals,” he said.

While technology can’t replace the human connection, both Mr. Haddad and Mr. Jarecke-Cheng say it helps. Skype is used, as is Google Hangout, which provides a virtual place for people to drop in and “visit.”

Mr. Jarecke-Cheng also communicates with his boss through Voxer, which he described as a combination of a walkie-talkie and text messaging.

For some people, virtual connections are enough, while for others nothing takes the place of being able to chat with a colleague over a cubicle divider.

Nicholas Bloom, a professor of economics at Stanford University, teamed up with Ctrip, China’s largest travel agency, to test some ideas about telecommuting. Over nine months, about 250 workers volunteered for the experiment; half were randomly chosen to work at home and half in the office.

At the end of the experiment, employers found that the home-based employees worked more than office workers — 9.5 percent longer — and were 13 percent more productive. They also were judged to be happier, as quitting rates were cut in half.

But those working at home were also promoted at half the rate of their colleagues working in the office.

“It may be a case, ‘out of sight, out of mind,’ ” Professor Bloom said. “Or it might be that you’re not drinking in the bar with your boss. Or it could be you’re not managing your employees as well if you’re not around them.”

Also, by reducing office space, Ctrip saved what would amount to $2,000 an employee annually.

However, at the end of the experiment, 50 percent of those who worked at home asked to come back to the office. They said they were lonely and didn’t like being passed over for promotion.

It does seem, Ms. Lister said, that most people like to have some combination of home and office work.

“That’s the sweet spot,” she said.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B6 of the New York edition with the headline: It’s Unclearly Defined, but Telecommuting Is Fast on the Rise. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe